


A Moment of Bucking Up

by clearinghouse



Category: Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Genre: Asexual Character, Burglary, But No Cricket, Crime and Cricket, Fluff, Jealous Raffles, Kissing, M/M, Oblivious Asexual MacKenzie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 13:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9610451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearinghouse/pseuds/clearinghouse
Summary: Inspector MacKenzie interrupts a tender moment between Raffles and Bunny.





	

Raffles pulled me away from the crowd of finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen who were sharing adult drinks and chatting excitedly over the inexplicable crime which had taken place in their midst of their party. Raffles led the way to a dark corridor past the winding stairs, which must not have ever been meant for any of the party guests to visit. The rest of the great house was made to be lustrous, boasting crystal chandeliers and silver dinnerware in places, though some of that silver had gone missing in the last half hour. However, at that moment, crystals and plates did not have as high a value for him as did the unadorned darkness.

I felt my back pressed against a wall, while Raffles leaned close in to me. Though he was as cool as ever, there was the fever of triumph flashing in his dark eyes and his clever smile.

The gentle palm of one of his white gloves rested on my cheek. I jumped at the unexpected touch, which would have been so welcome to me if we had been back at the Albany. I was either surprised or afraid to be caressed so sweetly by him in a public place, where constables were sure to be roaming at any moment. The stroke of his fingers on my naked skin filled me with a bright, golden light.

“I thought you were mine,” Raffles murmured.

The doubt in his voice startled me out of any care I might have had for the theft and the commotion of the thrilled party-goers. I knew what Raffles was referring to, and the thought of his sense of betrayal made my stomach turn. With a fierce turn of tone, I whispered back, “I am!”

It would not be so easy as that. He bowed his head grimly. “If that is true, then you were certainly unusually free with that one young lady, not so long ago.”

An anxious swallow passed through my throat. “She was just being friendly,” I said, though I did not believe it.

Raffles, on the other hand, spoke the hard truth. “Nay, she was flirting quite eagerly with you. And you very cordially returned her attention. My dear rabbit, I never knew you could be such a heart-breaker.”

I blushed. Whose heart did he think I would be breaking?

“I wonder,” he brutally went on, “how much of the feeling on your end was for show, and how much was genuine? Maybe it was not at all genuine. It is simple. She comes up to you; she extends her polite affections, you seek refuge from the scrutiny of that Scotland Yard detective in conversation with the lady; the conversation is flattering, harmless, and protective. It is exceedingly rational. I should have done the same, if the situation had come upon me instead. I daresay I have done the same, on more than one occasion.” This sign of understanding gave me some relief, but Raffles did not change his morose aspect. “And yet,” he said to himself, “and yet.”

“I swear,” I said, “it didn’t mean anything.” I had even forgotten about it, until now. It had been only a conversation, in the lull of the night’s action. It should have done Raffles proud for me to make such an effort at playing my part and acting natural with a beautiful lady. I must have acted too well, for perhaps the one and only time in my life.

Dreamily, he reached for my straight, light-coloured hair, and straightened it further. “I’m very sure I ought to believe you, and yet it pained me to see you smile at her, the way that I thought only I could make you smile, if not wider still.”

It hurt to hear him say so. I meant to say that the lady I had spoken with couldn’t genuinely make me happy like Raffles did—that his eyes must have played tricks on him when he’d taken notice of me and her. But I was transfixed by the weight of his gloves on my scalp, and he continued.

This time, his frustration came out softly. “Is there something about her that you need, that you’ve not been getting from me, Bunny?”

I blinked at the gentle, vulnerable manner of the question, which surprised me. “No,” I breathed, “not at all!”

Raffles exchanged a long, thoughtful look with me. It came to my attention that his long legs and knees were coming up against mine, nearly interlocking with my body. “Could any woman, however beautiful, ever kiss you as well as this?”

I stared at him, not understanding. Surely, not in this stranger’s house, not in the middle of this social function, he didn’t mean to—?

Slowly, he bowed his head and laid his lips upon mine, and my eyes widened.

He kissed me sweetly, with a passion that was at once subtle and overpowering. I was swept up in his commanding energy. His delightful hands fell from my hair and settled on the waist of my tailcoat, while mine came up to grasp the biceps of his long sleeves. The close caress of his palm on me through my clothes was a blissful comfort, while the moulding of his lips against mine made my head swim in a torrent.

I was shocked by the lack of restraint in his passion, just as I was shocked by how easily I acquiesced to his whim. Raffles was usually so careful not to chance any tender encounter with me whenever we were in a public space, and I had always quietly followed his very sensible lead. But now he was leading me astray—and not for the first time, truth be told.

His gentle will was undeniable. I would follow his lead always, whether or not he stayed the course of reason. My head rolled back uselessly against the wall, and my lips parted for him. Raffles rewarded me with a small groan of approval and a deepened kiss. As he indulgently explored my throat, his hands slipped beneath the crisp shirt and braces underneath my tailcoat. The leather of his gloves was smooth and satisfying against my skin. 

I shuddered, from the pleasure of his affectionate touches and from my fear of the very real danger that we would be discovered in such a scandalous position. “AJ,” I protested weakly.

Raffles only growled like an alpha male in response. He kissed me once more, and I did not resist him. On the contrary, my body and my soul welcomed him, despite my better sense. His legs were now neatly in line with mine, and his hands were methodically stroking my sides up and down. Panic ought to have seized me in the midst of his bold behaviour, but his jealous hands on me felt too good.

I loved Raffles, and it was not often that I had the chance to feel so viscerally his love for me; when those chances did arise, then, it meant a shamefully great lot to me. Above all else, I wanted to be useful to him, and it was his appreciation of me that sapped my strength, turned me weightless, and compelled me to smile foolishly against his hungry lips.

“Mr Raffles again? And Mr Manders.”

Startled, I jerked away from Raffles, all but tossing his hands off of me. He was slower to react; there was much greater vexation on his features at my departure from him than at the sound of the unwelcome voice calling out to us.

I straightened myself out, and prepared to face our adversary with a fast-beating heart.

Of all people, it was that dreadful Detective Inspector MacKenzie, of Scotland Yard. He’d just come round the corner of the hallway, and he might have missed the kiss we had shared, though he couldn’t have possibly missed how I’d hastily broken apart our intimacy at his approach. He would have to be a dullard of the first degree not to read the situation instantly, and I already knew from past experience that he was no dullard. 

Raffles and I had not been secret lovers for long, yet here we were already discovered, and by the worst possible fellow.

The sight of this man’s trademark Inverness coat and plaid kilt had never given me cause for celebration, even if the man wasn’t exactly out to get us two. (Fortunately, our previous encounters with him had all been nothing more than unhappy coincidences; if he had any vague suspicions of Raffles, I didn’t know it for certain.) Currently his presence brought my spirit substantially lower than the presence of a detective inspector normally did. At that moment, I didn’t particularly care why he had followed us into this corner. I only hoped we could somehow extricate ourselves from the mess that Raffles had made possible and I had made certain of.

“Inspector MacKenzie,” Raffles returned none too pleasantly, in the same vein of dubious inquiry that the inspector had used, “we really ought to stop meeting each other like this.” I could not find the breath to form any comeback of my own, so Raffles took it upon himself to speak for the both of us. “Not to be impolite, but you are interrupting a moment of bucking up between me and my companion here.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. At least, I was man enough not to stare at Raffles, or at least, I think I managed not to.

Incredibly, Inspector MacKenzie was not impressed. “Good evening, sirs,” he said sternly. “I thought I caught sight of two gentlemen wandering away from the group. That’s a curious thing to do during an investigation.” 

“Rest assured, neither of us has taken gravely ill,” Raffles said, throwing away our one obvious excuse without compunction. “I dragged Bunny into the corner for quite another reason. Of course, I’d rather not say the reason. I’ve nothing to say on that topic which should be freely said to all and sundry.”

My distinctly unhappy disbelief could have melted me in my shoes. Of course, I still resolved to place my trust firmly in Raffles, but good heavens, it was a far sight beyond the usual stretch of faith.

The inspector’s response was flat. “I’m afraid I have to inquire after everyone as to each person’s activities during the evening. I’ve been given to understand that a handful of the house’s twenty-four silver spoons have been abstracted during the course of the night’s activities. I’ll need a statement from you, and from Mr Manders as well.”

It impressed me severely how little immediate interest the inspector betrayed in the outrageous behaviour that we had engaged in only seconds ago; and our bodies were still rather close to one another in this shadowy hallway. My disbelief now doubled, to cast itself over the detective’s common sense as well as that of my friend. How could Inspector MacKenzie talk of lost spoons, after finding me and Raffles in this dark spot?

Raffles boldly stood in front of me, perhaps as a direct challenge to our associate (if he could be called that) from Scotland Yard. “Wouldn’t it save you time to pat us down now? That is, assuming we’ve taken the dinnerware ourselves. Or give us a good shake. Shouldn’t a pile of spoons in one’s pockets make the devil of a noise?” To illustrate this—and to the effect of seeming exceptionally energetic—he jumped up and down on his hard-soled shoes three times. “Well, I registered the noise of my heels, but not of spoons.”

“The spoons might be bound with string or rubber, sir, or on the person of Mr Manders.”

Playing at being defeated by that, Raffles spread his hands. “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, I suppose that might work. In fact, I certainly could have stuffed them in my shoes, or in Bunny’s tailcoat, when he wasn’t looking.” 

I laughed quite by accident at the absurdity of such a remark. It was not altogether appropriate, and I murmured an apology for it. Raffles, however, went on with his performance.

“You need not take my word for it, but I assure you that there are not any spoons on me or on Bunny. As to our activities, we haven’t done anything all night but stand about and have a good time, same as the others.”

“Ah, but you are not with the others now,” Inspector MacKenzie reminded patiently.

“Quite right, and I’d really prefer not to tell you why.” Raffles crossed his arms. “I will, if you promise me you won’t tell another soul. It’s a very private matter.”

I am relieved to be able to assert that I said nothing, though sincere terror and objection must have been written plainly across my face. 

The inspector objected instantly. “I make no such promise,” the man said simply.

“Then you put me in a tight spot.” Raffles sighed bitterly. “I’m bound to speak, or I’ll seem that I have something to hide. It’s a right bit of bad luck that this tosh of Bunny’s had to come about in the middle of an investigation from the blessed police. Forgive me, Bunny; I have no choice but to tell him the truth of why we’ve sequestered ourselves away from the crowd.”

I held my breath.

The pose that Raffles struck was one of unusual diffidence. “You see, we are in hiding from one of the women in particular. You might have observed a young woman in attendance—the beautiful one?”

“I did not have chance to remark on the beauty of any of the ladies.”

“Indeed not? Well, you might also have heard from one of the other guests that she and my good friend spent some of the evening together in animated conversation. I hate to confess this; I fear that I betray my friend’s confidence in me by confessing it, even when circumstances force me; but, in truth, Bunny was faking interest, and longed to get away as soon as possible. I helped him make his escape.”

How this anecdote could have any bearing of importance to the inspector was beyond me. Moreover, it was irksome that I could not tell at all how seriously Raffles spoke as he parroted my own rationalisation, which he had not believed when it came from my lips.

“I do apologise, Bunny. However, we both know that Inspector MacKenzie is a good man. He won’t divulge that you have, a secret aversion to women.”

This had become too much for me. “Raffles!” I cried out.

Raffles only grinned approvingly in response, and somehow the glorious feeling of having done the right thing washed over my attack of anxiety. “It’s all right,” he purred warmly to me, and went so far as to add a friendly pat to my shoulder; the renewed closeness from him was a glorious comfort. “It’s nothing you need panic over. We will wait here calmly, and the young lady will surely move on, without any obvious scandal to offend her. Then, when you are yourself again, we will see if we can’t rejoin the party, or I could take you home.”

My brow rose to my hairline. Take me home! My gaze shot to inspector.

Amazement overtook me, when I was faced with only a look of sporting understanding from him. “No, Mr Manders, you’ve nothing to fear from me. It’s all quite clear to me now. Aye…” Inspector MacKenzie shook his head at me, effecting a peculiar pity on my behalf. “I’ll say nothing of this. You two stay here, then—I’ll see to it that you’re not disturbed by the rest—but mind you don’t leave the house just yet. All of the witnesses must stay on the premises, of course, until business is sorted out.” And without another word, he was glad to leave us alone in our corner.

I was at a complete loss. Despite my nearly sickening relief, I begged for an explanation from Raffles the instant I was sure that we would not be heard. “Why—why did he let us go like that?” 

The voice of my companion was as confident and strong as ever; it contrasted greatly with the hoarseness of my own. “Breathe, now, Bunny. There’s nothing to concern oneself over. You act as if we’ve committed a crime in front of him.”

“Didn’t we, essentially? You told him that we’d run off on account of—my aversion to women!”

“Of course. It’s a fate that MacKenzie shares.”

My feverishness died down into embers. I stopped, and wondered at the possibility that Raffles had just presented. “He is… like us?”

“No. He’s very much not like us. Oh, but don’t frown at me in such a confusion! Allow me to finish. I take it that you’ve never noticed how little attention the good inspector pays to the fairer sex—or to his own, either. That there’s a chap who’s not interested in women or men. I don’t know a word for it, but it means that he’d be the first to make a run for it at the approach of an appreciative female, if he could work it without causing a scene. So I knew he would understand your plight, even if, in reality, he quite misunderstood it.”

It was difficult to imagine that such a person could exist. “Why would anyone be like that, though? Is there something wrong with him?”

“No, I don’t think so, or else one might say in all fairness that there’s something wrong with you and me. But all that is hardly relevant to us anymore. All it means for our own purposes is that he’s too uncomprehending in the face of displays of affection to suspect us of anything. On the other hand, he might not got any intuition for relationships, but he’s a capable detective, and he’ll find the spoons speedily, I don’t doubt it.”

The silver spoons! “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you about the spoons. It was you, wasn’t it? You worked your magic again tonight, somehow. You didn’t really hide them on me, after all?”

My enthusiasm seemed to please him greatly, confirming my suspicions. Moreover, I was delighted whenever I could have that kind of effect on him. “I’m afraid not,” he declared with vigour to match mine. “No, I would venture to propose that they are will be discovered in the bag of a beautiful young lady.”

I gasped. “You put them in that woman’s bag?” I should have guessed it from the start. 

“Dear me, did I do that?” It was not at all the chivalrous thing, but Raffles grinned in such a good, playful humour that I could not hope to resist. “Since she is so fond of the attention of others, she will be ecstatic to find herself the star of the show.” 

Though I should have been indignant, for the lady’s sake at least, I was not. An act of romantic jealousy, as pure and true as any written of in classic literature, had been committed on my behalf. I was dazzled and flattered, and even while I muttered under my breath at his ruthlessness, I had to smile back at him for it.

Raffles took my reaction in the brightest of spirits. “Oh, and not to mention, the theft of the silver will be such an excitement that no one will take much notice of the redecorating which has been done in the midst of the action.” With a swift movement in and out of his breast pocket, Raffles showed me three small, oblong crystals, bound together in string. “They’re not from the big ones on the ceiling, but the smaller versions on the hallway walls. I saw almost immediately that a crystal of one of the fixtures was sticking out of its brothers’ general formation at an unexpected angle. The angle was so abhorrent that I assumed it to be a defect; so imagine my surprise when the fixture’s counterparts boasted the exact same feature! There can be no doubt that the appearance of the entire house will be greatly improved by the removal of the offenders.”

“All the loose ends will be tied up, then?”

The crystals were very sombrely put away. “Good heavens, no. You’re the most important end, my dear Bunny, and I’m not through with you, for how you made yourself into a perfect Don Juan.”

I groaned. “My dear Raffles,” I retorted in like manner, “didn’t you yourself just explain to Inspector MacKenzie that it was all an act?”

This remark of mine won me a flashy sparkle from his dark, cunning eyes. “Funny, I don’t recall,” he said. He gave my body a light shove back against the wall, and pinned me there once more with his gloved hands on my waist. He whispered my name with the amorous heat of a demon, and I blushed hotly. 

Yet when he at last lowered his handsome face to kiss me again, it was with a loving softness. He showered me with caresses from his lips and his hands. He was physically entreating me with all of his soul to be his and his alone. It almost hurt, to feel how immensely he loved me. 

For this encore, I had the presence of mind to return his affection with as much sincerity as ever a man could show his beloved. My own fingers went reverently into his dark curls, because with all of my being, I did cherish him deeply, and I wanted him to know it.

End


End file.
